Stale Peppermints
by Luna1337
Summary: It's been a year since Twist got her cutie mark. And a year since she's been friends with Applebloom.
1. Chapter 1

Twist waited for Cheerilee to turn her back, and then scribbled a note quickly. She nudged it under the table just as her teacher turned around, and passed it to Diamond Tiara the instant she could. Diamond Tiara scanned it and flashed a hooves-up at Twist. Twist had spent all night making treats for their slumber party after school. She couldn't help thinking of back when she was friends with Apple Bloom.

_Stop it. She only wanted to be friends with you because you were the only other blank-flank she knew._

"And that's how the brilliant military strategist Commander Hurricane won the Trans-Marefrica war and brought peace to Equestria! Any questions, or is it time for recess?" Cheerilee trilled, wiping the chalkboard clean.

"Recess!" the entire class yelled, scrambling for the door. Twist walked out slowly, her head held high, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon on either side.

"So, like, what should we do until the slumber party?" Diamond Tiara asked. "How does the spa sound? Daddy bought me a three-month membership for Hearth's Warming Day!"

"The thpa thoundth great! And then we can pick up those cupcaketh from Thugarcube Corner!"'

"It's a plan!" the threesome shouted in unison.

"By the way, Daddy said he knows, like, a totally great speech therapist who can fix your lisp? You dig?"

"Really? You would do that for me?" Twist said, her mouth slightly agape.

Well, since we've never actually had a real best friend before, like, OF COURSE!" Silver Spoon lifted her flank for their little rhyme.

"Bump, bump, sugar lump, RUMP!" Twist tripped on her hooves and knocked down her two friends. They lay there in the dewy grass, giggling. Just then, the three fillies that Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon despised most walked by. Silver Spoon stiffened, and Diamond Tiara's lips curled back in a sneer.

"Well, if it isn't the Cutie Mark Crybabies." Scootaloo's eyes narrowed and her wings opened aggressively.

"You don't bother us anymore, Diamond Tiara. We're going to go get cutie marks that'll make yours cry for mercy."

"We'd stay to point out how utterly, like, stupid your little club is, but we're going to the spa, and lame-mane might be contagious."

Scootaloo was about to retort something when Apple Bloom cut her off.

"Well, we'll just be goin' now. See ya later." The three fillies trotted away.

Twist relaxed in the gentle heat of the hot tub, listening to Diamond Tiara gossip about which celebrities were the most trendy and which songs she liked. A thought crossed her mind.

"I have a quethton. Why do you hate Thcootaloo, Thweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom so much? Athide from them being bla-"

Diamond Tiara shoved a hoof in her mouth. "Shush! Not in public!"

"Mmph?"

"It's like, a total secret. Not in public. I'll tell you at the slumber party."

Aloe motioned for them to move on to the next stage of the treatment. She and her sister placed cucumbers over the fillies' eyes, and spread rejuvenating green gook over their faces.

"I've alwayth wanted to eat the cucumberth when they do thith," Twist remarked, resisting the urge.

"OH MY CELESTIA!" Diamond Tiara shrieked. "Like, me too! Silver Spoon thinks they would taste like the green stuff."

"Well, they're touching it," Silver Spoon protested. "They probably would!" Lotus Blossom tied strands of kelp around them, and they jumped in the mud pool.

After the spa treatment, they walked over to Sugarcube Corner, almost evading Pinkie Pie completely.

"DID SOMEONE SAY CUPCAKES?" a shrill voice screamed from upstairs as Silver Spoon handed over the bits for the cupcakes.

Silver Spoon rolled her eyes and mouthed _Pinkie Pie_. A pink blur shot down the stairs.

"Omigosh! You're having a party? Why didn't you tell me? I could have had time to plan!"

"It'th kind of a private party, Pinkie," Twist said. Pinkie nodded knowingly.

"I know all about private parties. Don't worry, I won't say a word. Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!" She picked up a cupcake and smashed it into her face, giggling.

"Thee you later, Pinkie!" Twist picked up the box of cupcakes, now missing one, and stuffed it in her saddlebag. She pointed at her house across the street, and followed Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, her mouth drooling as she imagined the delicious treats that waited for her there.

Her mother seemed mildly surprised to see her. "Why are you so late? The other fillies got here a long time ago."

"What other fillieth?"

"Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom. I assumed they were here for the slumber party. They quite enjoyed your sweets."

Twist dashed into her room, where she found all the sweets she had spent hours making gone, the only remnants of the delicious treats sticky mouths and hooves on the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

"Oh, hi, Twist. Your mom said that you invited us to your slumber party. I didn't remember you saying anything, but you probably did," Sweetie Belle said, licking her hooves.

"I did NOT invite you to my thlumber party!" Twist shouted, her pale complexion filling with a warm red. "It wath a private party! And you ruined it!"

"This means war!" Diamond Tiara growled, standing beside Twist.

"Well, we're awful sorry," Apple Bloom said, hiding a smile behind hooves stained with pink. "If it's any consolation, the sweets were purdy good."

"It wasn't very nice to not invite us, anyways," Scootaloo grumbled, glaring at Silver Spoon.

"That'th not the ithue! The ithue ith that you crathhed a private party!"

"We're going already!" Sweetie Belle said, trudging out the door with some effort, as her hooves stuck to the ground whenever she stepped.

When the party crashers were gone, Twist pulled the box of cupcakes out of her bag. "At leatht we have thethe thtill."

"They are soo like, inconsiderate," Diamond Tiara sighed, stuffing a cupcake in her mouth.

**Author's Note:**

I'm going to kill your love of Scootaloo. Just warning ya. :P


	2. Chapter 2

"Well, that was rude," Scootaloo said, walking home with Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. "I mean, even if she didn't invite us, she could have let us stay!"

"Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon must have gotten to her," Applebloom said, kicking vengefully at a rock. "The Twist ah knew wouldn' have sent us away from anything."

"Why were we at Peppermint Delights again?" Sweetie Belle asked, trying to wipe the dirt that had accumulated on her sticky hooves off.

"We were gonna try makin' candy, remember?"

"Oh, right." Sweetie Belle rubbed her leg against the brick surface of a nearby house, wincing as it scraped the dirt off. Applebloom smiled wistfully.

"Ah remember when ah was friends with Twist. Maybe ah should have stayed friends with her after that, but ah guess ah just assumed she wouldn't want to be mah friend anymore. At least she has friends. Maybe they're nicer to her."

Scootaloo snorted. "Sure they are. Those two aren't capable of nice."

"Hey, Twist," Diamond Tiara called over the music. "You want, like, another cupcake? There's three left."

"Thure," Twist answered from the other side of the room, where she was examining the results of Pin the Tail on the Pony. Two were in the wall, one was on the pony's leg, and one was on a chair. Diamond Tiara carried the cupcake to her, but instead of handing it over, she motioned for Silver Spoon to turn the music up and pulled Twist under the table.

"Now, what I am about to tell you is not to leave this room on pain of friendship, like, totally over." Twist nodded, and crossed her hooves, the shorthand for a Pinkie promise that they had developed.

"So you know, Scootaloo's family is, like, really rich, almost as rich as mine. That's how they can afford that really fancy house at the end of Smart Cookie Drive. Back a few years ago, there was this economic crisis thingy. Daddy lost a lot of money and Scootaloo was the richest filly. And she totally rubbed it in our faces!" A twinge of bitterness pierced Diamond Tiara's voice, dissipating as she continued.

"Anyways, it started out just snobbery, but then she was, like, really mean and stuff! So we vowed that we would pay her back any way we could."

"Why did you teathe me and Apple Bloom though?"

"After we teased her a lot, it got kind of hard to only tease her," Diamond Tiara admitted. "But then Applebloom joined forces with that little blank flank. So we could focus our teasing power on just their little group! And then Silver Spoon had, like, the best idea ever! She said that maybe we should make a friend. We tried to get Babs to be our friend, but she totally backstabbed us! So we decided to be your friend instead. And you know the rest!"

Twist remembered the day Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon had invited her to a private picnic at the edge of the Everfree Forest and shown her that there was more to the ponies than what they seemed.

_. "Hey, Twithy-poo!" Diamond Tiara cooed from across the schoolyard. "Doing anything later?"_

_ "No," Twist answered without a trace of emotion in her voice. "Why?"_

_ "My dad is having this totally lame picnic, and Silver Spoon's mom is making her go, so I need to invite someone weird and nerdy to make my dad happy without making ponies think I care enough to invite someone cool._

_ "Fine."_

_ "The food ith good," Twist said, struggling to find something to say. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon had stayed on the opposite side of the picnic blanket the entire time, whispering and staring at her. Filthy Rich flipped the_ Ponyvile Inquirer _to the stock market section._

_ "Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon?" he said without looking up. "If you're gonna invite ponies to something, you have to socialize with 'em."_

_ Diamond Tiara rolled her eyes. "Fiiine, Daddy. So, what's it like living in a candy shop! Do you, like, get all the candy you can eat?"_

_ "Only when I can thwipe it."_

_ Silver Spoon leaned in, a thin strand of drool hanging from her mouth. "You will get me into this sweet shop. Now."_

_ "Why thould I? You've been the foremotht bullieth for motht of my life! Why are you being nithe now?"_

_ "If you had actually, like, noticed, we never teased you. Applebloom's much lamer than you. Anypony who hangs out with somepony as lame as her automatically becomes lamer. So we're like the Lame-ators. Like liberators, only for ponies who are lame."_

_ "...okay."_

It had slowly spiraled upward after that, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon no longer acting like self-righteous jerks to them being real friends over a few months.

"Why didn't you want to tell me at the thpa, though?" Twist asked, snapping out of memory

"Well, I have this public image. I need to protect it. Telling a tragic story from my foalhood would, like, totally undermine it."

Twist's mother stuck her head in the door. "Could you turn the music down a notch? There's a customer!"

"Thure thing, Mom."


	3. Chapter 3

Twist awoke with a crick in her neck from sleeping on the floor the night before. Around her lay the destruction from the party: empty cupcake wrappers, ripped streamers, and countless half-finished sleepover activities. Silver Spoon lay a few feet away, cradling an empty punch glass like a teddy bear. Diamond Tiara sat on Twist's bed, eating a muffin.

"Your mom makes really good peppermint muffins," she noted. "She said school is in about an hour, so we should get ready." Twist carefully picked her way out to the bathroom, managing to not step on the worst of the painful small items scattered across the floor.

Applebloom aimed the threaded needle straight through the fabric, almost-but-not-quite not pricking her mouth.

She spat it out in surprise. "Dang needle. Why can't ah be a unicorn? Unicorns don't have to deal with this!"

"You _were_ the one who volunteered to make us new saddlebags," Sweetie Belle logically pointed out.

"Well, whattaya expect me ta' do? Ours are rippin' apart at the seams! Plus, I really think this might be mah special talent! Can't yeh just see me, stitchin' away in a dress shop like Rarity's? In fact, I think this might be what ah want to do with mah life!" She stared hopefully at her flank, but no image appeared.

"You can't just say that. Rarity says you have to really mean it!" Applebloom managed to finish an awkward bag-shaped lump.

"We'll just have to use our old ones then," she said, her ears drooping. "Say, Scootaloo, yer parents are okay with us stayin' the night, right?"

"Even if they were here, they wouldn't care," Scootaloo answered, strapping on her scooter helmet. "All they care about is their department store in Canterlot, and they're always away on business trips."

"Ah thought it's illegal to leave ponies under the age of thirteen alone?"

"I'm eleven, for Celestia's sake. I can take care of myself. Besides, I technically have a foalsitter. We have an agreement that she is not actually responsible for me. She's out shopping right now. By the way, it's past eight. We'll be late for school."

"So, what do you want to do after school?" Diamond Tiara asked over the ringing school bell. "Like go to the arcade or something?"

"You jutht want to thee Button Math," Twist said. Diamond Tiara suggested they go to the arcade every Thursday, which happened to be also the day when Button Mash, his entire allowance in quarter bits, spent the day toggling joysticks and pressing buttons. Whenever they were there, Diamond Tiara always managed to find an excuse to play the game next to his. Her character usually died within five minutes while she applauded his every gaming achievement.

"I do NOT," Diamond Tiara said, her ears turning dark pink. "Just because he's like really handsome, talented, and single does not mean I have a crush on him!"

"Who thaid anything about a cruth? Bethideth, I heard he hath a thing for Thweetie Belle." As they walked into the classroom, towards their seats, Cheerilee put a hoof out to stop them.

"Diamond Tiara, Twist, Silver Spoon, Cutie Mark Crusaders, I'd like to speak with you," she said. Twist shivered. Miss Cheerilee only said that when someone was in trouble. Cheerilee led them outside to the picnic benches.

"I'm aware that usually the first of the month is a half-day. However, as I reminded you several days in advance, the half-day was rescheduled for Professor Dusty Tome's lecture on the history of Wingland. If you have to leave before class is dismissed, please ask permission first."

"We're sorry, Miss Cheerilee," Applebloom said. "It's just that we had some crusadin' to get to, and it slipped our minds."

"You had 'crusadin' to do?" Silver Spoon spat in an insulting imitation of Applebloom's accent. "Well, that makes _everything_ better!"

"Silver Spoon!" Miss Cheerilee gasped. "Need I remind you that bullying is a cruel practice? If you need to talk to someone about something that's bothering you, just tell me and I'll help you! But I will simply not tolerate harassment or violence!"

"Oh, like you even care!" Scootaloo stomped her hoof on the picnic table. "They've taunted us on a nearly daily basis and you've never lifted a hoof to help! They could literally break my wings in front of you, and you would just ask if we brought our homework!"

"That is it! I can be sympathetic, but you two have crossed the line! You are suspended! As for the rest of you, if I ever see you fighting again, you will be lucky if all you get is a suspension!" Cheerilee stormed back into the school house, her tail switching in sync with her heavy hooffalls.

Scootaloo stood there, her mouth slightly agape and her cheeks flushed from her outburst. Suspended? She knew she should be ashamed, but instead her heart raced and thoughts churned in her mind. This could possibly attract her parents' attention, even get them to come out from Canterlot. The last time she had messed up badly enough for that to happen was when she staked a squirrel to a post to terrify her shrink while Fluttershy was in Canterlot with Twilight. The shrink had quit and moved to Trottingham. The squirrel had lived a full four years after that, but Fluttershy insisted he was never the same. Scootaloo had a sneaking suspicion that she had never forgiven her. She waved goodbye to her friends as they trotted into their classroom.

"This is all your fault, blank flank!" Silver Spoon growled. "If you hadn't sassed Miss Cheerilee, I would be in the classroom by now!"

"Well, you were the one who started it!"

"Maybe if you didn't try every single stupid idea that comes into your head, you would have a cutie mark by now!"

"That doesn't even make sense!"

Silver Spoon adjusted her glasses and smirked.

"_I_ got my cutie mark by trying things I was already good at! Unlike you, I actually had a strategy!"

_Things I was already good at._

Even though she would never admit it to Silver Spoon, Scootaloo realized that maybe they were doing it wrong. After all, Rainbow Dash had earned her cutie mark by racing, which she was already good at. Twilight Sparkle was already good at magic. Every single pony Scootaloo could think of was already good at their special talent when they were a filly. Which meant...

She smiled and picked her scooter helmet off the ground, and clicked on the straps.

Scootaloo would have her cutie mark in no time.


	4. Chapter 4

"I hope Scootaloo is okay," Sweetie Belle said as she staggered out of the classroom, weighed down by several hours' worth of homework in her saddlebags. Miss Cheerilee didn't think their part in the incident was significant enough to merit a suspension, but she could punish them in other ways. "She seemed pretty upset."

"It wasn' even her fault! Silver Spoon started it!" Applebloom muttered, thinking of how sore her mouth and mind would be later. Applejack wasn't much help. Her knowledge of school topics extended to simple arithmetic, a smattering of Equestrian history, and a basic knowledge of plant biology.

"What are they doing?" Sweetie Belle pointed at a tree. Underneath it, Snips and Snails conversed with a hooded foal.

"Let's find out." Applebloom broke into a run. Snails quickly dived into a bush, and Snips galloped up the tree. The hooded foal pawed the ground and then literally disappeared. Applebloom skidded to a halt, narrowly missing the tree. The momentum from her saddle bags pulled her into the bush.

"Do you mind?" Snails whispered loudly. "We're hiding from App-AHHH! SNIPS! CODE APPLE! I REPEAT! CODE APPLE!" He ran out of the bush screaming, followed by Snips.

A few yards away, Diamond Tiara spat something on the ground and pulled off her cloak. "You sure we're not going to like get in a lot of trouble? Zecora might know it was us who took her cloak and invisibility leaves."

"I've been thwiping treatth for yearth from my mother'th thop. I know what I'm doing." Twist rubbed a bit of sap off of her hoof. "I jutht hope that they take the bait and Thnips and Thnails don't meth up. We were going to vithit Thilver Thpoon, right?"

"Yeah. And of course they'll take it! It's a 'quick and easy way to get a cutie mark'!"

Silver Spoon lay on her one-hundred percent real manticore fur bedspread, doodling spoon designs in a sketchbook. She hadn't had a lot of time for the forge lately, but she had a vague idea for a spoon designed especially for non-unicorns. So far it was a normal spoon with a round lump of silver at the end that enabled it to be attached to a hoof. The clock chimed thrice and the door opened. The family butler, Shea Butter, entered with a tray of mini cucumber sandwiches and fruit punch.

"I thought I was grounded?" Silver Spoon asked, dropping her pencil. Usually when she was grounded, it meant peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. She despised peanut butter and jelly.

"The master said the usual," Shea Butter replied with a shrug. She put the tray next to Silver Spoon, which had a note she had not seen before.

_Dear Silver Spoon,_ the letter read.

_I have received word from your teacher, Miss Cheerilee, that you had a public outburst at a fellow student. Need I remind you that a proper lady controls her temper? If you must seek to mentally harm another pony, at least do it in the traditional manners such as gossip and rumors. That said, I have assigned you a governess. She will arrive this afternoon from Canterlot._

_Sincerely,_

_Hoity Toity_

_P.S: Would you mind terribly modeling for your mother's next fashion show? She hasn't been the same since Fluttershy quit...we would both appreciate it greatly._

_P.S.S: I have also received word that Scootaloo is your victim. If my boutique is to be hosted in her parents' department store, you two must tolerate or hopefully befriend each other. _

Silver Spoon put her hoof to her face. She _hated_ her mother's fashion shows. Photo Finish always insisted on Silver Spoon copying her fake Germane accent and wearing ridiculous get-ups. Besides, she had been forced to sit through one hundred and twenty-five shows in a row when Diamond Tiara had been sick over the Hearth's Warming Day break. If she heard one more word about 'de magicks', Silver Spoon thought she would puke. Far down below on the first level, the doorbell rang. She glanced out the window, expecting some fashion designer or something who'd come to see her mother, but instead caught sight of a familiar red curly mane.

"Come ON, Fluttershy! Why do you have to pick now to be a responsible foalsitter?" Scootaloo made a snatch at the bag of frosted oatcakes, but Fluttershy held it even higher out of her reach.

"I may not be good with foals, but I do know that frosted oatcakes aren't healthy! Why, just look at all the delicious spinach I got you at the market! Who wouldn't want such a crunchy, juicy treat?"

Scootaloo darted into the open pantry where she knew there was an almost full bag of hay fries, but ran into something soft, furry, and yellow. Fluttershy could be faster than Rainbow Dash when she wanted to.

"Now, I didn't to have to do this, but you've left me no choice!" Fluttershy' eyes narrowed and the sides of her mouth turned down in a Stare. Against her will, Scootaloo felt herself slinking back to the table and filling her mouth with the disgusting plants. Her eyes bulged. She quietly exited the house and vomited the sticky green mass onto Fluttershy's favorite butterfly's favorite flower.

"Is this a bad time?" Applebloom trotted up to her yard and critically surveyed the flower. "Ah think it'll live. Ain't ever gonna be the same, though."

"Sorry," Scootaloo answered, grinning at the splattered flower. "Fluttershy forced that stuff down me with the Stare, and I had to get it out. You want to go crusading? I have a really good idea for how to get our cutie marks! One that is really actually going to work!" She motioned for them to huddle together.

"So while Silver Spoon was being a stupid little brat, she said something that got me thinking: What if our special talents are those we're already good at?"

"That sounds like a great idea!" Sweetie Belle whispered. "Except...what are we good at? You're good at riding your scooter, but what am I good at?"

"Singing," Applebloom and Scootaloo said in unison. Sweetie Belle blushed.

"I'm not that good at singing, you guys..."

Scootaloo kicked a flower. "At this rate, we'll never discover our special talents...unless...WAIT! You guys! Let's ask our big sisters/surrogate big sisters about what we're good at!"

The three fillies knocked hooves. "CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS TALENT DISCOVERERS YAY!"


End file.
